Historically, the military accidents in training isn't all that good.
The cost issue is largely attributed to any government exercise that could probably be done cheaper elsewhere (not sure the $1000 government toilet seat is 100 times better than my $10 Walmart one).
I'm not suggesting that we try and make military training as cheap as possible, because invariably there would be corners cut. I thought it was a good idea to use the little general aviation plastic planes for initial training (sorry, name escapes me), but they ended up killing several anyway.
Military could just as easily start in a Cessna 172, for a tiny fraction of the current cost, for instance.
This debate has no winner, and will go on for as long as the two groups exists. But, clearly the puppy mills are a joke.